“I’d like to summarize in a few words the history of the civil rights movement in a way that over-simplifies the role of Father Divine in it, oversimplifies the whole thing, but it still makes a point: Father Divine proved that interracial living was possible. So, Rosa Parks sat in front of a bus and she wouldn’t move when she was asked to go to the back; so, Martin Luther King gave his ‘I have a dream’ speech in Washington; so, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. There it is in a few words…”

If you would like to view the entire presentation about FATHER DIVINE’s important interracial communities in Ulster County, New York, it is on YouTube in seven parts. Part one is here. (Subsequent parts, clearly numbered, will appear in the right-hand sidebar on the YouTube page).

This volume merges the contents of Parables and Stories Told by Father Divine, a privately printed anthology put together in the 1970s, and Stories Father Divine has Told, originally published by The New Day Publishing Company of Philadelphia, Pa. You can order a printed version here.